Semi-Lexical Categories: The Function of Content Words and the Content of Function Words

565 Pages·2001·11.589 MB·English

by  Norbert Corver, Henk Van Riemsdijk

Semi-lexical Categories
W
DE
G
Studies in Generative Grammar 59
Editors
Henk van Riemsdijk
Harry van der Hulst
Jan Köster
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York
Semi-lexical Categories
The Function of Content Words
and
the Content of Function Words
edited by
Norbert Corver
Henk van Riemsdijk
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York 2001
Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague)
is a Division of Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin.
The series Studies in Generative Grammar was formerly published by
Foris Publications Holland.
© Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines
of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Semi-lexical categories : the function of content words and the content
of function words / edited by Norbert Corver, Henk van Riemsdijk.
p. cm. - (Studies in generative grammar ; 59)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 3110166852
1. Grammar, Comparative and general — Function words.
2. Grammar, Comparative and general — Syntax. 3. Semantics.
I. Corver, Norbert, 1963- II. Riemsdijk, Henk C. van.
P283 .S46 2001
415-dc21 2001037016
Die Deutsche Bibliothek — Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Semi-lexical categories : the function of content words and the content
of function words / ed. by Norbert Corver ; Henk van Riemsdijk. —
Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 2001
(Studies in generative grammar ; 59)
ISBN 3-11-016685-2
© Copyright 2001 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin.
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this
book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publisher.
Printing & binding: Hubert & Co., Gö ttingen.
Cover design: Christopher Schneider, Berlin.
Printed in Germany.
To Haj Ross
supreme grammarian and
grand master of the subtle distinction

Contents
Semi-lexical categories 1
Norbert Corver and. Henk van Riemsdijk
Parti
Semi-lexicality and Syntactic Projection
The flat structure economy of semi-lexical heads 23
Joseph Emonds
Heads and selection 67
Hubert Haider
Children's semi-lexical heads 97
Susan M. Powers
Semantically empty lexical heads as last resorts 127
Carson T. Schütze
Part II
Semi-lexicality in the Nominal Domain
Numeral/Quantifier-Classifier as a complex head 191
Tanmoy Bhattacharya
Classifiers and semi-lexicality: Functional and semantic selection 223
Elisabeth Löbel
Agreement patterns of Czech group nouns and quantifiers 273
Ludmila VeselovsM
VIII Contents
Part III
Semi-lexicality in the Verbal Domain
On the (semi)lexical status of light verbs 323
Miriam Butt and Wilhelm Geuder
"Semi-lexical" motion verbs in Romance and Germanic 371
Anna Cardinaletti and Giuliana Giusti
Underspecification in serial verb constructions 415
Tjerk Hagemeijer
Part IV
Semi-lexicality of Adpositional and Adposition-Iike Elements
Semi-lexical heads in a semantically charged syntax 455
Kristin M. Eide and Tor A. Äfarli
As for as / for, they are semi-lexical heads 475
Joan Rafel
Lexical particles, semi-lexical postpositions 505
Jochen Zeller
Index 551
Semi-lexical categories
Norbert Corver and Henk van Riemsdijk
1. On function words and content words
Ever since the earliest research on language, syntactic categorization of lex-
ical items has played an important role in linguistic description and theori-
zing. A central dichotomy in the categorization of syntactic categories is
that between content words (also called: lexical or substantive categories)
and function words (also called: functional categories). Content words are
often characterized as being those lexical items which have a relatively
'specific or detailed' semantic content and as such carry the principal
meaning of the sentence. They name the objects (N), events (V), properties
(A) and locations/directions (P) that are at the heart of the message that the
sentence is meant to convey. As opposed to content words, function words
have a more 'non-conceptual' meaning and fulfill an essentially 'grammati-
cal' function; in a sense they are needed by the surface structure to glue the
content words together, to indicate what goes with what and how. The
abstract meaning of the functional domain comprises such properties as:
tense, modality, definiteness, number, degree, interrogativity, etcetera.
Although there is, of course, an intuitive plausibility underlying this
major distinction in the system of syntactic categories, one of the aims of
linguistic theory should be to make this dichotomy more precise, i.e. to
define what the 'functional properties' are that make a lexical item into a
function word and what the 'content/lexical properties' are that characterize
a lexical item as belonging to the class of content words (i.e. lexical
categories). An often referred to property distinguishing the two types of
categories is that of openness of membership. Content words belong to
open classes of words; that is, new members can freely be added to this
class. Function words, on the other hand, have a fixed roster, and once it
has been learned, few other members are ever added. As a consequence, the
membership is much more restricted; the set of lexical items falling under
some function word X forms a closed class.